Lakeview residents staging Wrigley Field rally tonight

Residents in the Lakeview area plan to rally at 6:30 tonight at the corner of Clark and Patterson streets, across the street from Wrigley Field, to protest aspects of the ballpark renovation that could be approved by the Chicago Plan Commission tomorrow.

An email sent from East Lake View Neighbors, the group in the Lakeview Citizens Council whose territory includes Wrigley Field, said the rally is meant "to request the city to negotiate and fully vet the proposed planned development for Wrigley Field prior to any approval."

"Your support and your voice are needed to save our streets from being annexed to the Cubs and the area becoming a digital media circus and open-container free-for-all," the group said in the letter.

The Cubs' full planned development application — which includes changes to the stadium as well as the proposed adjacent triangle plaza, team office building and boutique hotel across from the park — is set to be reviewed and voted on by the Chicago Plan Commission at its monthly meeting tomorrow.

A "couple hundred" residents are expected at tonight's rally, which comes almost a week after the Lake View Citizens Council sent a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel requesting a meeting to discuss concerns about traffic that may be created by the hotel and plaza; however, the group has not gotten a response, said Will DeMille, president of the council.

"There's still so much to be determined," Mr. DeMille said. He said residents he's heard from are frustrated, but resigned to the fact that approval of the renovation is on the way. "No other planned development would be approved without a discussion about its impact on traffic."

The Cubs have commissioned a roughly 100-page traffic study on that topic, which presumably is being reviewed by the Plan Commission's staff before it makes its recommendation to the panel tomorrow morning.

There's no indication that the Plan Commission, whose members are appointed by Mr. Emanuel, will reject the application, though Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, continues to push for tweaks that include removing a proposed pedestrian bridge over Clark Street, removing a planned patio deck over Patterson Street and relocating the proposed hotel's lobby from Patterson Street to either Addison or Clark street.